We study the production of arbitrary superpositions of Dicke states via optimal control. We show that $N$ atomic hyperfine qubits, interacting symmetrically via the Rydberg blockade, are well described by the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian and fully controllable by phase-modulated microwaves driving Rydberg-dressed states. With currently feasible parameters, it is possible to generate states of $\sim \text{ten}$ hyperfine qubits in $\sim 1\mu \mathrm{s}$, assuming a fast microwave phase switching time. The same control can be achieved with a “dressed-ground control” scheme, which reduces the demands for fast phase switching at the expense of increased total control time.

The “failed Kondo insulator” CeNiSn has long been suspected to be a nodal metal, with a node in the hybridization matrix elements. Here we carry out a series of Nernst effect experiments to delineate whether the severely anisotropic magnetotransport coefficients do indeed derive from a nodal metal or can simply be explained by a highly anisotropic Fermi surface. Our experiments reveal that despite an almost twentyfold anisotropy in the Hall conductivity, the large Nernst signal is isotropic. Taken in conjunction with the magnetotransport anisotropy, these results provide strong support for an isotropic Fermi surface with a large anisotropy in quasiparticle mass derived from a nodal hybridization.

The magnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet can be grown with near perfection and is therefore and ideal conduit for spin currents. It is a complex material with 20 magnetic moments in the unit cell. In spite of being a ferrimagnet, YIG is almost always modeled as a simple ferromagnet with a single spin wave mode. We use the method of atomistic spin dynamics to study the temperature evolution of the full spin wave spectrum, in quantitative agreement with neutron scattering experiments. The antiferromagnetic or optical mode is found to suppress the spin Seebeck effect at room temperature and beyond due to thermally pumped spin currents with opposite polarization to the ferromagnetic mode.

We introduce a family of new integrable quantum field theories in four dimensions by considering the $\gamma$-deformed $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory in the double scaling limit of large imaginary twists and small coupling. This limit discards the gauge fields and retains only certain Yukawa and scalar interactions with three arbitrary effective couplings. In the ‘t Hooft limit, these 4D theories are integrable, and contain a wealth of conformal correlators such that the whole arsenal of $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}$ integrability remains applicable. As a special case of these models, we obtain a quantum field theory of two complex scalars with a chiral, quartic interaction. The Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase vacuum anomalous dimension is dominated in each loop order by a single “wheel” graph, whose bulk represents an integrable “fishnet” graph. This explicitly demonstrates the all-loop integrability of gamma-deformed planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM theory, at least in our limit. Using this feature and integrability results we provide an explicit conjecture for the periods of double-wheel graphs with an arbitrary number of spokes in terms of multiple zeta values of limited depth.

Atom interferometers provide exquisite measurements of the properties of noninertial frames. While atomic interactions are typically detrimental to good sensing, efforts to harness entanglement to improve sensitivity remain tantalizing. Here we explore the role of interactions in an analogy between atomic gyroscopes and SQUIDs, motivated by recent experiments realizing ring-shaped traps for ultracold atoms. We explore the one-dimensional limit of these ring systems with a moving weak barrier, such as that provided by a blue-detuned laser beam. In this limit, we employ Luttinger liquid theory and find an analogy with the superconducting phase-slip qubit, in which the topological charge associated with persistent currents can be put into superposition. In particular, we find that strongly interacting atoms in such a system could be used for precision rotation sensing. We compare the performance of this new sensor to an equivalent noninteracting atom interferometer, and find improvements in sensitivity and bandwidth beyond the atomic shot-noise limit.

Magnetically driven implosions of solid metal shells are an effective vehicle to compress materials to extreme pressures and densities. Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities (RTI) are ubiquitous, yet typically undesired features in all such experiments where solid materials are rapidly accelerated to high velocities. In cylindrical shells (“liners”), the magnetic field driving the implosion can exacerbate the RTI. We suggest an approach to implode solid metal liners enabling a remarkable reduction in the growth of magnetized RTI (MRTI) by employing a magnetic drive with a tilted, dynamic polarization, forming a dynamic screw pinch. Our calculations, based on a self-consistent analytic framework, demonstrate that the cumulative growth of the most deleterious MRTI modes may be reduced by as much as 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. One key application of this technique is to generate increasingly stable, higher-performance implosions of solid metal liners to achieve fusion [M. R. Gomez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 155003 (2014)]. We weigh the potentially dramatic benefits of the solid liner dynamic screw pinch against the experimental tradeoffs required to achieve the desired drive field history and identify promising designs for future experimental and computational studies.

Metal deposition on oxide surfaces usually results in adatoms, clusters, or islands of the deposited material, where defects in the surface often act as nucleation centers. Here an alternate configuration is reported. After the vapor deposition of Fe on the ${\mathrm{In}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3(111)$ surface at room temperature, ordered adatoms are observed with scanning tunneling microscopy. These are identical to the In adatoms that form when the sample is reduced by heating in ultrahigh vacuum. Density functional theory calculations confirm that Fe interchanges with In in the topmost layer, pushing the excess In atoms to the surface where they arrange as a well-ordered adatom array.

We use real-time diffuse surface x-ray diffraction to probe the evolution of island size distributions and its effects on surface smoothing in pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_3$. We show that the island size evolution obeys dynamic scaling and two distinct regimes of island growth kinetics. Our data show that PLD film growth can persist without roughening despite thermally driven Ostwald ripening, the main mechanism for surface smoothing, being shut down. The absence of roughening is concomitant with decreasing island density, contradicting the prevailing view that increasing island density is the key to surface smoothing in PLD. We also report a previously unobserved crossover from diffusion-limited to attachment-limited island growth that reveals the influence of nonequilibrium atomic level surface transport processes on the growth modes in PLD. We show by direct measurements that attachment-limited island growth is the dominant process in PLD that creates step flowlike behavior or quasistep flow as PLD “self-organizes” local step flow on a length scale consistent with the substrate temperature and PLD parameters.

The interplay of bond and charge correlations is studied in a one-dimensional model with both Holstein and Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) couplings to quantum phonons. The problem is solved exactly by quantum Monte Carlo simulations. If one of the couplings dominates, the ground state is a Peierls insulator with long-range bond or charge order. At weak coupling, the results suggest a spin-gapped and repulsive metallic phase arising from the competing order parameters and lattice fluctuations. Such a phase is absent from the pure SSH model even for quantum phonons. At strong coupling, evidence for a continuous transition between the two Peierls states is presented.

We present a dimensional reduction argument to derive the classification reduction of fermionic symmetry protected topological phases in the presence of interactions. The dimensional reduction proceeds by relating the topological character of a $d$-dimensional system to the number of zero-energy bound states localized at zero-dimensional topological defects present at its surface. This correspondence leads to a general condition for symmetry preserving interactions that render the system topologically trivial, and allows us to explicitly write a quartic interaction to this end. Our reduction shows that all phases with topological invariant smaller than $n$ are topologically distinct, thereby reducing the noninteracting $\mathbb{Z}$ classification to ${\mathbb{Z}}_n$.

We develop a general theory for describing phase coexistence between nonequilibrium steady states in Brownian systems, based on power functional theory [M. Schmidt and J. M. Brader, J. Chem. Phys. 138, 214101 (2013)]. We apply the framework to the special case of fluid-fluid phase separation of active soft sphere swimmers. The central object of the theory, the dissipated free power, is calculated via computer simulations and compared to a simple analytical approximation. The theory describes well the simulation data and predicts motility-induced phase separation due to avoidance of dissipative clusters.

Feynman’s prescription for a quantum simulator was to find a Hamitonian for a system that could serve as a computer. The Pólya-Hilbert conjecture proposed the demonstration of Riemann’s hypothesis through the spectral decomposition of Hermitian operators. Here we study the problem of decomposing a number into its prime factors, $N=xy$, using such a simulator. First, we derive the Hamiltonian of the physical system that simulates a new arithmetic function formulated for the factorization problem that represents the energy of the computer. This function rests alone on the primes below $\sqrt{N}$. We exactly solve the spectrum of the quantum system without resorting to any external ad hoc conditions, also showing that it obtains, for $x\ll \sqrt{N}$, a prediction of the prime counting function that is almost identical to Riemann’s $R(x)$ function. It has no counterpart in analytic number theory, and its derivation is a consequence of the quantum theory of the simulator alone.

According to Landauer’s principle, erasing a memory requires an average work of at least $kT\ln 2$ per bit. Recent experiments have confirmed this prediction for a one-bit memory represented by a symmetric double-well potential. Here, we present an experimental study of erasure for a memory encoded in an asymmetric double-well potential. Using a feedback trap, we find that the average work to erase can be less than $kT\ln 2$. Surprisingly, erasure protocols that differ subtly give measurably different values for the asymptotic work, a result we explain by showing that one protocol is symmetric with the respect to time reversal, while the other is not. The differences between the protocols help clarify the distinctions between thermodynamic and logical reversibility.

The development, characterization, and control of $N$-photon sources are instrumental for quantum technological applications. This work constitutes a step forward in this direction, where we propose a cavity quantum electrodynamics setup designed for the generation of photon pairs. We identify both the regime where our system works as a deterministic down-converter of a single input photon and as an optimal two-photon source under weak continuous driving. We use both the scattering and master equation formalisms to characterize the system, and from their connection naturally arises a physical criterion characterizing when weakly driven systems behave as continuous antibunched two-photon sources. We also show that the outgoing photons share nontrivial quantum correlations in general. We provide a specific implementation based on state-of-the-art superconducting circuits, showing how our proposal is within the reach of current technologies. As an outlook, we show the proposal can be extended to achieve deterministic conversion of a single photon into $N$ photons.